Telcos still dialling in large mobile numbers

Vietnam has 162.8 million mobile and fixed telephone subscribers nationwide, 91.2 per cent of which are mobile subscribers, reaching mobile penetration of 189 per 100 people, according to a Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) report.

There are 26.8 million internet users, reaching the internet penetration of 31.12 per cent, and 3.68 million mobile broadband users

The revenue from telecom services in 2010 is estimated at around VND200 trillion ($10.3 billion), or 8 per cent of Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP), a year-on-year increase of 42.8 per cent.

“The gross revenue from telecom services kept increasing in 2010 in the context of falling telecom charges. This is a success of the local telecom industry,” said MIC Deputy Minister Le Nam Thang.

However, the country’s leading telecom operator VNPT Group  witnessed its first decrease in new telephone and internet broadband subscribers in 2010. Its new mobile subscriber number was equal to only 78 per cent of 2009’s and new internet subscribers were equal to 66 per cent of  2009’s.

VNPT Group chairman Pham Long Tran said the telecoms market in 2011 would witness fiercer competition between operators in terms of tariff plans.

“We suppose MIC will give new policies encouraging operators to develop new services and re-invest in service developments,” said Tran.

Local operators are preparing to deeply enter device production while asking the government to give incentives to this field.

“We need incentives for telecom device production and the MIC should compose supporting programmes for production through establishing device measuring centres as well as policies for promoting broadband network development in 2011,” said Hoang Anh Xuan, general director of Viettel.

“In 2011, there will be three trends of telecom charge movement, some will fall some will increase and there is diversification in service package to customise customer demand such as high speed and capacity as well as service packages for the poor,” added Thang.

There were 35,000 new base transceiver stations (BTS) built by seven operators in 2010, raising the total number of stations to 93,900 units.

In another development, the information and communication technology industry posted a year-on-year revenue growth of 20 per cent in 2010, reaching $7.4 billion.